Author: Miss Abercrombie

Microsoft Lens

Microsoft Lens, turn physical paper into accessible digital text in seconds.

 

🔍 What does it do?

Microsoft Lens is a scanning app that uses the iPad camera to “read” the world around it. It automatically crops and cleans up photos of whiteboards, worksheets, or book pages. More importantly, it uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to turn the text in those photos into digital content that can be read aloud, edited, or translated.

🎓 Why is it useful?

  • Instant Accessibility: Students who find reading difficult can take a photo of any page and have it read to them by saving their scan into OneNote and using Immersive Reader.

  • No More Manual Typing: If you have a physical worksheet but lost the digital file, Lens can scan it and “extract” the text to a Word document for you to edit.

  • High-Quality Scanning: It automatically fixes “wonky” angles and removes glare from whiteboards, making classroom notes clear and easy to read later.

  • Glow Integration: Scanned documents can be saved directly into your OneDrive, OneNote.

 

⚙️ How does it work?

  1. Open the App: Point your iPad camera at a document, whiteboard, or book.

  2. Select a Mode: Swipe between Document (for paper), Whiteboard (to remove glare), or Actions (to extract text or tables to a copy and passable piece of text). You can also extract text from previously taken images.

  3. Snap & Trim: Take the photo. Lens will automatically find the edges of the paper, but you can adjust them manually if needed.

  4. Choose a Destination: Tap Done and select where you want it to go. Please note that choosing Immersive Reader directly on the save screen does not work, please save to OneDrive and then tap the image once it has processed to access Immersive Reader in OneNote for audio support.

🚀 Beyond the Basics

  • Alongside OneNote: A pupil can take a photo of a textbook page and export it to OneNote. Once in OneNote they can select Immersive Reader, here they can change the font size, background colour, make use of picture dictionary and have the text read aloud – giving them independent access to the curriculum.

  • Jotter to OneNote: Pupils can take photos of their handwritten work in their jotters. Lens cleans up the image and saves it into their OneNote Class Notebook, creating a permanent digital record of their physical work

 

Support for your school digital learning journey

When your school is looking to move forward in its digital learning journey, where do you start?

You may be reflecting on where you are, where you want to be, and what needs done to move further along the road in embedding digital technology across the school, at all stages and across the curriculum to make a positive difference to learning and teaching – and every school will be different.

The signposts below to the resources you may find useful, whatever your starting point, will help you gauge where your school is right now, help your school define a vision, map out the steps to take to move forward, identify the strengths, experiences and roles of everyone in your school community, set markers to track your journey, and celebrate the successes.

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Project Evolve: help equip children and young people for digital life

What is it?

ProjectEVOLVE provides a framework and progression with matched activities and resources, to support anyone working with children and young people to equip them for digital life, from early years to age 18. ProjectEVOLVE takes the hundreds of statements from UK Council for Internet Safety’s (UKCIS) framework “Education for a Connected World” and marries together perspectives, research, activities, outcomes, supporting resources and professional development materials. ProjectEVOLVE is free to use.

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iDEA Award: recognising learner skills

What is it?

The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA, is an award programme which provides access to a range of free on-demand online courses. In completing courses from the wide range available they not only aim to support developing digital, enterprise and employability skills, the completion of the assessments built into each course provide the means to demonstrate the learner’s skills, and then give recognition for so doing. Read more

GarageBand

GarageBand – your complete recording studio for music, podcasts, and digital storytelling.

 

🔍 What does it do?

GarageBand is a free, high-powered audio creation app. It allows pupils to play “Smart Instruments” (like piano or guitar that stay in key), record their own voices, and mix multiple tracks together. While it is excellent for music, it is equally useful for recording speech, creating soundscapes, or producing high-quality podcasts.

 

🎓 Why is it useful?

  • Literacy & Voice: Pupils can record audiobooks or radio dramas. The process of editing their own speech helps them engage deeply with text, tone, and pacing.

  • Smart Instruments: You don’t need to be a musician to create music. “Smart” features ensure that whatever a pupil plays sounds professional and harmonic, boosting their confidence in creative expression.

  • Multi-Sensory Learning: Pupils can communicate mood and tone through sound – for example, creating a “suspenseful” backing track for a gothic story they have written.

  • Portable Studio: Using the built-in iPad microphone, pupils can capture “found sounds” (like wind, footsteps, or rain) to use in their projects, or record on the go making learning truly mobile.

 

⚙️ How does it work?

  1. Launch: Open the GarageBand app. Tap the ‘+’ to create a new song.

  2. Choose a Tool: Select Audio Recorder (the microphone) to record speech, or Live Loops to create instant electronic music by tapping colored cells.

  3. Record: Tap the red Record button at the top. Use the “Metronome” icon to keep a steady beat if needed.

  4. Edit: Tap the Tracks View icon (looks like a brick wall) to see your recordings. You can trim, move, or loop clips by tapping on them.

  5. Export: When finished, go to My Songs, long-press your project, and select Share > Song to save it as a high-quality audio file.

 

🚀 Beyond the Basics

  • Podcasting: Have pupils record a 3-minute “Expert Interview” on a class topic. Use the “Telephone” or “Robot” voice effects to make it sound like a real radio broadcast.

  • Ratio & Patterns: Music is built on patterns. Use the Beat Sequencer to build drum beats – pupils can see how different “ratios” of beats create different rhythms.

  • Expressing Emotion: Pupils can use the “Strings” or “Keyboards” to create a short piece of music that represents a specific feeling (e.g., calm, angry, or excited).

  • Language Practice: Record pupils speaking in a different language. They can use the Sampler to play their own voice back at different pitches, making pronunciation practice fun and engaging.

  • Soundscapes: Create the “sound of a setting.” Pupils can layer tracks of wind, whispering, and door creaks to bring a setting from their creative writing to life.

🔗 Teacher Quick Links

Connected Falkirk GarageBand ‘How To’ Playlist

GarageBand Tips: How to Get Started with GarageBand

Apple GarageBand Page